Jug with Soldier’s Verse

Catalog No. 35

Stoneware, relief, 1.0L, pewter lid.

Text:“DES•HIMMELS•FRANCK•DER•HÖLLE•LOHS•TRUTZ•DIR•DU•HÄMICHES•GELICHTER
MEIN•HIEBER•BLIZZT•ZU•STICH•UND•STOSS•DIE•PESTH•AUF•ALLE•SPLITTER-RICHTER
NUR•AUFF•MICH•SÄLBST•BIN•ICH•GESTELLT•WAS•KÜMMERT•MICH•DIE•AFFTER-WELT”
(Not fearing heaven or hell, I take heads with gloating laughter.
My pike flashes to stab and thrust, the plague on all self-righteous judges.
Relying on myself alone, I care not what becomes of me in the afterworld.)

This design was copied from an actual Renaissance period piece, one of some forty-two Renaissance replicas first manufactured by Merkelbach in the early 1900s and reproduced regularly thereafter. These items were numbered 1 through 42, duplicating numbers applied to earlier Merkelbach offerings.